How to get Published with Kanishka Gupta & Rahul Soni
November 22 to November 26
Publishing in India is akin to playing ‘dark room’. You grope your way around an inky blackness and bump into things, sometimes pointy or rough (like Literary agents charging upfront). You may follow a false speck of light, trip and hurt yourself (by signing up with an iffy character – there are many of those). You make choices with incomplete or misleading information. And your brilliant Manuscript may never see the light of day.
Dear poet/writer, we’d love to know you better.
What are you writing?
In prose, you prefer…
To stay informed about articles related to poetry writing,
would you like to get emails from us?
We don’t spam and you can unsubscribe any time.
In prose, you prefer…
To stay informed about articles related to fiction writing,
would you like to get emails from us?
And we’re happy to throw in two free courses, too
We don’t spam and you can unsubscribe any time.
To stay informed about articles related to prose and poetry writing,
would you like to get emails from us?
And we’re happy to throw in two free courses, too
We don’t spam and you can unsubscribe any time.
To stay informed about articles related to non-fiction writing,
would you like to get emails from us?
And we’re happy to throw in two free courses, too
We don’t spam and you can unsubscribe any time.
Kanishka Gupta is a respected guide to this treacherous landscape – he runs India’s largest literary agency, Writer’s Side. Rahul Soni has worked, published and translated in this industry, and is currently with Harper Collins. (more about the instructors below).
Together, they will illuminate this dark room. Over three+ days Kanishka and Rahul will throw light on the hidden corners and difficult aspects of publishing. They’ll get into the nuance and details. They will help twelve hand-picked writers with their pitch and proposal, and get you much closer to landing a great publishing deal for your book. Kanishka may also sign-on workshop participants he finds worthy (like Agni in the video above, who is already signed up with Harper Collins).
Of course, it all starts with great writing. If you’ve been working on something you think deserves a good publishing contract and lots of readers, apply now. This Masterclass will help your work get to it’s rightful place in the sun.
Please remember that applications will be evaluated on the merit of the writing and the project, so don’t do a rush job. Put your best draft forward.
Detailed Program
Day 1
- Publishing Industry Overview
- Introduce individual projects
- Submission package elements
- Query Letter
Day 2
- Synopsis examples
- Drafting a great synopsis
- Personalised feedback
Day 3
- Copyrights – international, audio, screen
- Contracts – representation / publishing
- How to approach the right agents
- Marketing Plan
This masterclass will be held at the Himalayan Writing Retreat in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. It is rated 5/5 from over 430 google reviews.
CN Traveller also covered it in this article.
About the Instructors
Kanishka Gupta
Kanishka Gupta runs Writer’s Side Literary Agency, the leading South Asian agency he founded in India. His authors have most recently won the International Booker Prize in 2025 and 2022, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020. Among his notable authors are Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi (International Booker winners for Heart Lamp, 2025), Daisy Rockwell (International Booker winner for Tomb of Sand, 2022), Avni Doshi (Burnt Sugar, shortlisted for Booker prize 2020), and Jerry Pinto (Windham-Campbell prize, 2016).
He has worked closely with the 2022 Booker winner, Shehan Karunatilaka on multiple projects. He also represents translations by Arunava Sinha (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and The Stella Prize in Australia, 2024), Meeti Shroff Shah (shortlisted four times for the CWA Dagger Prize), Neha Dixit (CPJ International Press Freedom Award 2019 winner; The Many Lives of Syeda X longlisted for 2025 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing), Yuvan Aves (Intertidal shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2025), and Nicholas Brookes (An Island’s Eleven won the Wisden Cricket Book of the Year 2023, the 2023 Derek Hodgson Book Award, Sunday Times Cricket Book of the Year 2023, and MCC Book of the Year 2023).
Rahul Soni
Rahul Soni is a writer, editor and translator. He is an editor at large with HarperCollins Publishers India, where he has published a number of award-winning authors from Avni Doshi to Vinod Kumar Shukla, from Arshia Sattar to Madhuri Vijay, from Janice Pariat to S. Hareesh. During his time at HarperCollins, he has acquired and edited books that have gone on to become among the country’s best-selling and best-known literary works of recent years, and have won every major award in India, as well as winning or being shortlisted for major international awards including: the Booker Prize for Fiction, the JCB Prize for Literature, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the National Translation Award (ALTA), the PEN/Faulkner and PEN/Nabokov awards, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, etc.
He is the founding editor of South Parade, a print-only journal of literature from the Global South. He has previously been associated with: Writer’s Side, the largest literary agency and consultancy in South Asia; the international writer’s residency, Sangam House; Almost Island, a space for avant-garde writing; and Asymptote, an international journal of translation. He was also co-founder and editor of the pioneering multilingual literary journal Pratilipi and its imprint Pratilipi Books. He was a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2010, received the Sangam House Fellowship in 2012, and was selected for the Omi International Arts Center Writing Residency at Ledig House, New York,
in 2014.
As a translator, his publications include a selection of Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry, A Name for Every Leaf, Pankaj Kapur’s novella, Dopehri, Shrikant Verma’s Sahitya Akademi Award-winning poetry collection, Magadh, and International Booker Prize-winner Geetanjali Shree’s novel The Roof Beneath Their Feet.
Travel & Stay
The Himalayan Writing Retreat is built for writing and learning. We are rated 5-star on google and facebook.
Once here, you will be sharing a room with a fellow participant (unless we’ve confirmed a single). All essentials like food, hot water, towels etc. are provided. No hidden costs.
It can snow in winter. Weather can vary and the weather chart of Mukteshwar (12 km from the retreat) is here. A pair of sturdy walking shoes, some rain protection and an extra layer or two are always a good idea.
Our rooms are built to let nature in and inspire you. To see pictures of the rooms click here . To see pictures of the writing spaces click here.
Depending upon where you travel in from, you can reach us by road, train or air. Even if flying or taking a train, the final stretch is a drive, and the last 150 metres is a walk.
By Road
The retreat is a 370 km/9 hours drive from Delhi. If driving, we recommend you leave early. Note: Parking at the retreat is on the road, and we do not have any private parking. We’re a small property and cannot provide driver accommodation.
Overnight Volvo buses ply between Haldwani and Delhi, the more reliable of which are government operated. You can book those here. Private Volvos and Sleeper buses also ply between Delhi and Haldwani, which you can book on redbus. Make sure you pick a bus with a high (4+) rating.
By train
There are three trains a day from Delhi to Kathgodam, the nearest train station. Some others also come in from Kolkata, Lucknow and Dehradun. From Delhi, Ranikhet Express is a convenient overnight train both ways, but finding tickets can be difficult.
Most people prefer to take the Kathgodam Shatabdi (Delhi dep: 6.20 AM, Kathgodam Arr: 11.40 AM). A cab from Kathgodam to Satkhol takes about 2.5 hrs. Cabs are often shared by participants.
By Air
There are daily flights from Delhi to Pantnagar. A cab from Pantnagar to Satkhol takes about 3.5 hr.
There are direct flights from Mumbai and Bangalore to Bareilly 3-4 days a week. Satkhol is a 5hr cab ride from Bareilly. Cabs are often shared by participants.
FAQs
- Why should I choose HWR Workshops?
- Personal Attention: We don’t take more than 10 students in a class. You get a lot of personal attention and feedback. No classrooms of 20-30 people or one-way pre-recorded videos here.
- Class Quality: For most courses, we filter our participants. You can’t just pay and sign up. We need to see a writing sample (in our application form) to ensure the class is of a uniform standard.
- Quality of Faculty: No lightweights here. Many of our faculty are award-winners. All are experts and great teachers. We don’t settle for average.
- A Decade’s Experience:The Himalayan Writing Retreat was founded in 2016. we’ve been doing teaching programs for writers for ten years. we;ve hosted over 1000 people, and have yet to have an unhappy participant. It shows up in everything we do.
- Feedback scores: Across courses, we are rated 4.9/5, or higher. You can read our reviews HERE.
- Do I get a certificate of participation?
Yes, certificates are available on request.
- Any discounts for students / other categories?
At the Himalayan Writing Retreat, we follow a strict No-Discount policy.
- Is the workshop fee refundable?
Our cancellation policy is as follows:
Online Writing Workshop:
* 95% refund if cancellation 2 weeks before the event start date
* 50% refund if cancellation one week before the start date
* No refund if cancellation less than one week before the start date.
Workshops in the Himalayas (INR Denominated) :
* 95% refund if cancellation 4 weeks before the event start date
* 50% refund if cancellation two weeks before the start date
* 0% refund if cancellation less than two weeks before the start date.
- Is the Himalayan Writing Retreat a business or an NGO?
The Himalayan Writing Retreat is a social enterprise. It works closely and actively to support the unique and precious Chirag School. On average, HWR raises INR 8 Lakhs every year to support the Chirag School.
Have more questions?
Feel free to write to us at:
info@himalayanwritingretreat.com
Or connect with us at
+91 73035 16665
(Call | WA | Signal)
Event Summary
Early Bird Price:
* Price includes 4 nights stay (twin shared), food and learning
* Regular price: 63k+ GST
*Strict Zero Discount Policy
*Twin shared Suite / room at the Himalayan Writing Retreat
* Single accommodation available at an extra cost
The Himalayan Writing Retreat
Village Satkhol
District Nainital, Uttarakhand 263138
India
+ Google Map
+91 73035 16665
Cancellation Policy for Physical Courses
- 95% refund if cancellation 4 weeks before event start date.
- 50% refund if cancellation 2 weeks before the start date.
- 0% refund if cancellation is less than 2 weeks before start date.
